The 'E' Type Forum

Ooh poop....

Jumped in the car yesterday to blow away the cobwebs, heard a 'crack' and the drivers side hinge retaining strap fell into the footwell. It LOOKs like there are 2 dirty great cheese heads screws that hold that strap onto the hinge and clearly one of them broke but I will need to take a look at how it was fixed.

To be fair, I was never happy with the alignment of the doors so replacement door rubbers are on order (from Baines). Might as well do that whilst the door is off.

One thing I have noticed is that unrestored Etypes seem to have doors that shut under their own weight - but my hinges were too stiff to allow that.... any thoughts chaps? Are the doors supposed to swing easily into the aperture and just shut with a easy click?

Swing under own weight yes, latch yes, click fully shut under their own weight no, unless seals missing or totally squashed. Oil the hinge and use frequently. The door check strap does have a detent at the end to hold the door open.

Pete

'Check strap' thats a better word. Thanks Peter judicious oiling will be in order when the doors are off...

Hi Chris,

I've recently rebuilt the hinges for mine. Although I'm not at the point of hanging the doors yet (I wish!!) I can confirm that the hinges are very free moving with zero resistance.

The design is simply a steel pin going through an alloy casting and so if left to move without any lubrication, will become very stiff and start to seize. Lubrication is the key here and what usually happens is that they dry out and start to damage the alloy casting. One of mine needed repairing with a larger steel pin and hand reaming the alloy casting to suit. Now they are both freely moving and good as new :-)

Cheers.

Going to disagree with Pete here. My doors swing shut and latch. Takes time to get it right but is doable. Re the hinges, there is a small groove at the top, I squirt engine oil in there and open and shut the door. It will make its way down the pin eventually.

don't want to hijack the thread, but whilst on the subject , do the door straps have to be fixed to the door when the door is off? Also which way does the little nylon wedge face?

I agree with Angus about latching shut enough to need the button. Plus having gone out to check my 45yr old seal cars they do shut flush. My restored OTS doors with fresh Baines seals had to be dropped from near fully open and free swing. Angus probably has so much sound deadening and Waxoyl in his limo-grade restorations you could use his closing doors as metal guillotines.

The plastic or brass wedge goes with the slope towards the door and the square edge towards the end of the check strap. The oil groove is important to keep clear and just fits the thin wand on a can of WD40 or chain oil. There's also a small oil hole provided in the door latch mechanism.

Pete

Well blow me down - it was the actual strap that had sheared in half just ahead of the mounting bolt. I cant imagine where the stresses were to have caused that over 50 years...

On a positive note - i can now see where the hinge slots are to lubricate the hinge and boy did that make a difference. The door now swings shut under its own weight and without the rubbers being in place actually latches shut too....

Now all I have to do is keep working the new rubbers until they are in place AND the door still swings shut under its own weight. Good job its winter and I cant drive the car :)

SNG sell the strap but its not very cheap and has a nasty nylon fitting that I will have to replace with the original brass one